South Side Farms, an urban farm, housing, childcare and education project began ground clearing the first week of February.
The project received unanimous approval from the Cape Girardeau City Council in mid November 2021.
South Side Farms will reside South of Highway 74. The area was designated by the state as an “Opportunity Zone'' and “Federal Food Desert” due to the scarcity in grocery stores, causing heightened rates of food insecurity in the community.
The project’s mission is to provide residents in the area with nutritious and healthy food, supplying items such as field crops, eggs, honey and milk.
Additionally, the property will house a farmer’s market/grocery, restaurant, food incubator and more.
The farm was modeled after various successful urban farms across the country, providing extensive services beyond food availability.
The project will also address sustainable employment, higher education, safer living environment, childcare and home-ownership.
In collaboration with Saint Francis Healthcare System, South Side Farms will operate as an independent Missouri 501-C3 nonprofit with support from the local community, residents and leaders of South Cape.
The long-term project includes fundraising and volunteer opportunities and complementary partnerships.
Jimmy Wilferth, Vice President of Marketing and Foundation at St. Francis Medical center explained the involvement of a health organization like St. Francis was crucial to understanding the needs of the South Side community.
Wilferth said the project was an opportunity to understand how the health of individuals come together to affect an entire community, inspiring the project’s mission.
“It's not all just your physical health. It's your physical environment. It's your job status, income, level, childcare, the home that you live in, it's all the things that are what are called the social determinants of health. So it was a pretty easy marriage between what we do here within our walls and what's going on outside of our walls in the community,” said Wilferth.
Through his experience at St. Francis Wilferth said he realized that food is a big part of the problem, but that other systemic issues are what continue to cause communities to deteriorate.
“We went out knowing that food was something desperately needed on the south side of our community here in Cape Girardeau and multiple communities that we serve throughout the region, so we addressed that five years ago by taking food into the area. By doing that you build a lot of relationships and you start asking questions about what other needs you have,” said Wilferth. “So we learned a lot from going out taking food, that food is an issue, but it's kind of a lagging indicator, not a leading indicator into what some of the main issues are in a community.”
With this knowledge, Wilferth proposed implementing additional educational opportunities and housing options.
“[Food Insecurity] is kind of in a downward spiral of suffering from generational poverty, and so that's when we started hearing about home-ownership, versus rental, that's when we started hearing about childcare, because if you're going to be a homeowner, you have a good job. You can't get a good job if you don't have a place to go with your kids,” said Wilferth. “So we kind of reversed engineered where we were focused, and said okay, we've got to go back to the root cause of this so that we can help supply an area that is hurting in some of these other social determinants of health and eventually get back to the nutrition issue.”
The project has already received support from partner organizations, and Wilferth hopes to gain more connections throughout its development.
“This isn't just a South Side farm thing. Or a South Cape thing. This is Cape Girardeau. This is really a regional opportunity for people to come together,” said Wilferth. “Our main focus from a foundation perspective here is, St. Francis is food, education, nourishment, nutrition, but the housing piece has been picked up by another partner. The city park opportunity that we might have with the city will be picked up obviously by Parks and Rec. The educational part will be picked up by Cape Public Schools and National Junior Achievement… It's aligning with people who do what they do exceptionally well and not reinventing the wheel.”
Wilferth explains that in the long term, he hopes the South Side Farms initiative will correct systemic societal issues and work toward bettering the future of generations to come.
“I don't think there is a quick fix to the social determinants of health. There can be some things that are addressed immediately and we'll see some real wins, but long term is providing hope and opportunity and a future in a part of our community,” said Wilferth. “It's changing the life of this kid or this young adult with a future that, if they want to grow and become something else or be educated in a different way, or have an opportunity to break this cycle of poverty, that they're equipped to be able to do that.”
South Side Farms will be located at the corner of West End Boulevard and Walnut in Cape Girardeau.